Contents

Lore

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Previous

It is seldom the case where a champion is defined by his actions after joining the League of Legends rather than before. Such is the case with Jax, for whom the argument could be made that he is the most prolific tournament fighter currently at the Institute of War. Before joining the League, Jax was an unremarkable soldier-for-hire. For reasons known only to the former leader of the League, High Councilor Reginald Ashram, Jax was put on the top of the list of candidates to receive a League Judgment - the interview process that either accepts or rejects a prospective champion. His Judgment was the quickest in League history, where the Doors of Acceptance glowed and slowly swung open as soon as it began. Jax faced no recorded Observation or Reflection during his Judgment.

Jax proved himself to be an immediate terror in the Fields of Justice. The self-proclaimed "Armsmaster of the League" rattled off a streak of consecutive wins that to this day has not been matched. A number of summoners in the League grew concerned that the perceived objectivity of the League of Legends would be questioned by the presence of an unknown fighter who was unbeatable. For this reason, the new leader of the League (following Reginald Ashram's disappearance), High Councilor Heyward Relivash, created special restrictions for Jax to fight under. This was something the League had never done before, and something that has never been done since. The burly fighter responded by imposing his own special conditions; as a means of protest, he permitted himself to fight using only a brass lamppost. Neither the League's sanctions nor his own has affected his winning ways. The League has since rescinded its sanctions, but Jax has not; he fights and fights well with his trusty brass lamppost.

"Be advised - there has been an outbreak of lamppost-shaped bruises in the League of Legends."

The most prolific tournament fighter at the Institute of War, the self-proclaimed "Grandmaster at Arms" rattled off a streak of consecutive wins 152 long. No one had ever achieved even half of that number before, but what made it even more remarkable was that he did so while fighting only 152 matches. Concerned the peace accords that ended the Rune Wars would be threatened by a fighter who was unbeatable in the arena, the League hastily banned Jax from the arena all together. But in the spirit of the Institute, the League eventually relented, stating that a champion’s skill was no reason to remove a realm’s access to the governing powers of the tournaments. Jax was reinstated, but with one rule: He is only allowed to fight with weapons the League deems suitable. For now, that list includes a lamppost, a chicken’s foot, a spatula, and a fishing rod.

Abilities

Passive

Relentless Assault

(Innate) Jax's basic attacks increase his Attack Speed for 2.5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 8 times and fall off one at a time.

Attack Speed: 3.5 / 5 / 6.5 / 8 / 9.5 / 11%

Q

Leap Strike

(Active) Jax leaps towards a target, dealing physical damage if the target was an enemy.

(Active) Jax charges his weapon with energy, causing his next autoattack or Leap Strike to deal additional magic damage. This ability resets the autoattack timer.

Cost: 30 mana

Cooldown: 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 seconds

Magic Damage: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 (+60% of Ability Power)

E

Counter Strike

(Active) Jax enters a defensive stance for up to 2 seconds, dodging all incoming basic attacks and taking 25% less damage from area of effect abilities. At the end of the duration or if Counter Strike is activated again, Jax deals physical damage and stuns nearby enemies for 1 second. This spell deals 20% additional damage for each attack dodged to a maximum of 100% increased damage.

Patch History

Relentless Assault provides the core feel of Jax: a ramping threat that makes him deadly in extended fights. While focused CC should be the appropriate counterplay, he often loses all of his stacks to a single stray spell in a chaotic teamfight. Jax feeling pressure to avoid focused CC isn’t a problem, but shutting the Grandmaster at Arms down should be an intentional effort, not an accident.

Passive - Relentless Assault

NEW LESS RELENTING : Stacks fall off 1 at a time rather than all at once

v6.3Passive gives less attack speed per stack, but requires more stacks to reach the cap.

Surprise, he's back (we've made that joke before. Maybe even twice). Whether in the top lane or the jungle, Jax is a champion that's all about taking the time to ramp up before brutally smashing your face in with a lamppost. Traditionally that's been the case, but with powerful items like Rageblade and Devourer thrown into the mix, Jax's ramping threat has become more of a formality than a rule. We're installing speedbumps into Jax's powercurve to force him to commit a little longer in fights.

In a world without mana potions (and generally less early mana regeneration), we've identified a few champions for some emergency rations, giving early mana boosts until they can get their footing and purchase items to make up the deficit. This also means we can really understand which champions relied on mana potions as a crutch to limp through the early to mid game, and we can give additional love if necessary.

With strong endgame scaling, it makes sense that Jax’s laning should be a weakness - since taking a whack at his base stats last season however, the champ’s been a little too vulnerable when all he wants is to hit minions with his lamppost and buy a Trinity Force. We’re pretty keen to keeping Jax’s defenses tied to Counter Strike and Grandmaster’s Might, so amping the former should help big J suffer less for fighting back.

"Jax's stickiness and dueling capability in the mid and late-game are as strong as they've ever been, but in a world of death-ball comps and tanky moshpits the Grandmaster's feeling more like a novice and exploding a little too quickly when he steps into the ring. Slight tuning to his windowed durability shouldn't affect his 1v1 too greatly while making it easier to hop into skirmishes and give ‘em a piece of the champ."

"Surprise - he's back. While it hasn't been too long since Jax's reign over top lane, now that his laning power is a little more manageable we think we can give him some more late game love as a reward for getting through the early to mid phases."

"What this change means is that Jax will finish his attack animations a little faster but it's not a direct buff to his attack speed. It's a weird concept but basically his last-hitting is more responsive."

v4.11
"Even though Jax is intended to be a champ that scales well into the late game, he's currently so well-rounded that 'scaling well' ultimately turns him into an offensive brick wall with very few defensive weaknesses."

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